Headline July 31, 2015/ ''' 13.7 BILLION LIGHT YEARS '''

''' 13.7 BILLION LIGHT YEARS '''

[THE NATURE OF THE UNIVERSE, well, ye cannae change the laws of physics?

Alpha and Omega will dominate].

THE FURTHER BACK they looked with VLT  {Very Large Telescope}, the larger alpha seemed to be  -in seeming contradiction to the result they obtained with the Keck.

They realised, however, that there was a crucial difference between the two telescopes: because they are in different hemispheres, they are going in opposite directions.

Alpha, therefore, is not changing with time,; it is varying through space. When they analysed the data from both telescopes in this way, they found a great arc across the sky.

Along this arc, the value of alpha changes smoothly, being smaller in one direction and larger in the other.

The researchers calculate that there is less than a  1%  chance such an effect could arise at random. Furthermore, six of the quasars were observed with both telescopes, allowing them to get an additional handle on their errors.  

If the fine-structure constant really does vary through space, it may provide a way of studying the elusive  ''higher dimensions''  that many theories of reality predict, but which are beyond the reach of particle accelerators on Earth.

In these theories, the constant observed in the three-dimensional world are reflections of what happens in higher dimensions. It is natural in these theories for such constants to change their values as the universe expands and evolves.

Unfortunately, the method does not allow the team to tell which of the constants that goes into alpha might be changing.

But it suggests that at least one of them is. On the other hand, the small value of the change over a distance of  18 billion  light years suggests the whole universe is bigger than that.

A diameter of  18 billion light year suggests   [ 9 billion in each direction ]  is a considerable percentage of observable reality. 

The universe being 13.7 billion years old,  13.7 billion light-years duly stretched to allow for the fact that space is expanding -is the maximum distance it is possible to see in any direction.

If the variation Dr. Webb and Mr King have found is real, constant, and as gradual as their data suggest, you would have to go a very long distance indeed to come to a bit of space where the fine-structure constant was hostile to existence of life.

If, other team of astronomers are already on the case, and Victor Flambaum, one of Dr Webb's colleagues at the University of New South Wales, points out in a companion paper that laboratory tests involving atomic clocks:

Only slightly better than those that exist already could provide an independent check.

These would vary as the solar system moves through the universe. 

But if and when such confirmation comes, it will break one of physic's greatest taboos, the assumption that physical laws are the same everywhere and everywhen.

And a fine-structure constant will have shown itself to be more mysterious than even Feynman conceived.  

With respectful dedication to the Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all on !WOW!   -the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

''' Wiggle Room '''

Good Night and God bless

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